There are certain characteristics that are always associated with being either the victim or the victimizer in a scenario. The victim is usually weak and therefore doesn’t have the means to fight his oppressors. He is always right and is continuously entitled to sympathy from outside parties. A victimizer is the “bad guy,” he has the choice to be in this position because he has all the power. No one feels sorry for the victimizer, he has chosen to dominate others.
In both Bent and Good, the main characters are categorized as either the victim or the victimizer, however, neither of these fulfill the stereotypical definitions of their positions. Handler’s character is in a position of power. He is well educated and holds a respectable position in society. He is a good Nazi party member and is party of the dominant majority in the society. He has powerful friends who come to him for his expert advice. However, throughout the play we come to realize that his character doesn’t adhere to all the characteristics of a victimizer. We are shown his human side and it is made easy to sympathize with him. His mother is ill and his wife is portrayed as being needy and useless in the household. He is in love with his student and on top of this he has been convinced to join the Nazi party which conducts events that make him uneasy such as burning books or violence against Jews after a German was killed by a Jew.
Handler has been forced to become the victimizer which makes it easier to sympathize with him. He didn’t want to become part of the Nazi party but his wife encouraged him to saying it would benefit the family. He doesn’t agree with all that is being done especially book burnings, he even said that he didn’t get a chance to read Einstein yet. There are moments when he wants to run away with Anne and leave his all the violence behind. He even has a very good Jewish friend Maurice. Although he doesn’t really make an effort to help Maurice escape, it is still made clear that he does care about him. In the end Handler somewhat justifies being the victimizer by saying that if the Jews were smart they would have left Germany already and that perhaps it is all the Jews fault that the country was in such a decline. Anne encourages these ideas which in turn reassures Handler that he isn’t entirely the victimizer.
In the movie Bent, Max is portrayed as the victim in the movie Bent. He is a homosexual and is thus in a low position in the society at the time. He is part of the minority that is looked down upon by the Nazi regime. He is easily made a victim. He doesn’t have a steady income and owes his landlord rent. All he seems to do is party, do drugs and have sex with men he meets at night clubs. He has no power in society so when the Nazis begin to persecute him he has no line of defense.
At first Max deals with being the victim by trying to remain positive about the situation. He is confident that his deals will go through and he will be able to escape and leave the country. On the train ride to the camp he begins to loose touch from reality and shuts down. While in the camp he once again tries to be in control of his situation and he believes he has figured out how to stay sane and alive. Towards the end he seems to believe what the Nazis do, that homosexuals don’t deserve to love. While Max clearly is the victim in the movie, there are moments where it is difficult to sympathize with him and he is not entirely the victim. He denies his friendship with Rudy and when asked to beat him by a Nazi officer he hits his friend numerous times.
"Handler has been forced to become the victimizer which makes it easier to sympathize with him." I wouldn't say Halder was forced. He had choices. He seemed to have enough money to move out of Europe. I think he probably didn't want to be inconvenienced or face the isolation and pain of going his own way and on his own terms. He seemed to take the path of least resistance, preferring to go with the grain and never against it. He is a puppet and everyone around him holds the strings. And although he obviously has a conscience and listened to it, he never gave himself permission or managed to find the moral strength to do what was right and true to his instincts despite the conflicting opinions and pressures of those around him.
ReplyDeleteI think your post points to a larger idea Hedda, which is the concept that both men are the victims of psychological abuse and manipulation. It is difficult to call someone a victimizer when they are raised to be that way, forced, or ultimately had no other option. In both stories we see elements of this in that both men do commit atrocious acts, but we as the audience can't help but identify with their behavior. We excuse it because we understand the effects of society and the control that propaganda and power have on the outcomes of psychological victims' decisions. I think it's easy to categorize good and bad behavior, it's much more difficult for us to categorize the grey areas.
ReplyDeleteHedda, You pictures are broken. Go to see Brian Sullivan to see what you are doing wrong. Do a bit more with your discussion of Max. He isn't just a victim, is he? What about the way he treats Rudy?
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